During yesterday’s Heroes of the Storm Overview Panel, members from the Heroes development team stepped onto the Main Stage at BlizzCon to take an in-depth look at upcoming game content. Not only did our panelists offer a sneak peek at in-development Heroes and new Battlegrounds, but they also shared the inside scoop on two major impending features for competitive-minded players: Ranked Play and Draft Mode.

Ranked Play

That’s right; in a future patch, you’ll be able to find out how you and your friends stack up against the rest of the Heroes community by queuing up for competitive, ranked matches! With Ranked Play, you’ll be able to compete in two separate queues: Hero League and Team League. In Hero League, you can queue up as a solo player, or in a party of any size, and you’ll be given an individual ranking. Team League, however, requires a five player team, will allow you to create a dedicated, named team, and offers a separate ranking for each of your teams. In either league, winning games will help you soar to new heights in your attempts to ascend from Rank 50 to the coveted Rank 1. 

Draft Mode

The excitement doesn’t end there, because we’ll also be implementing Draft Mode, which is a crucial aspect of Ranked Play. Before a ranked game begins, your teammates and opponents will take turns picking and counter-picking Heroes in real-time to coordinate your team compositions. You’ll also know which Battleground you’ll be playing on ahead of time, so work closely with your allies to build the team that you’ll use to execute your strategy and crush the opposition. What’s more, we’re also adding Draft Mode as an optional way to kick off your Custom Games so you can play however you like outside of matchmaking.

We’ll have a whole lot more information to share with you on Ranked Play and Draft Mode in the weeks to come. For now, those of you who missed the Heroes Overview Panel can still quench your thirst for details by picking up a BlizzCon 2014 Virtual Ticket to watch the panel VoD.

We’ve also got the Heroes of the Storm Exhibition Tournament Finals coming up at 2:00 p.m. PDT this afternoon. As always, our eSports broadcasts at BlizzCon are completely free-to-watch whether you’ve got a Virtual Ticket or not, so be sure to head over to BlizzCon.com to catch the finals, because it’s sure to be an event for the Heroes history books.